Dan Burn is raring to go when the Premier League resumes on Saturday and says he feels fitter than he would normally have been.
The players have been training together for more than three weeks ahead of Arsenal’s visit to the Amex on Saturday and Burn believes the whole squad is in good physical shape.
He said, “Obviously lockdown made it tough to keep your fitness up and be motivated so you were ready to come back and play but we were given programmes and I kept myself as fit as possible.
“I am probably fitter than I would have been in an off-season - I normally have a couple of weeks as a break but I carried on right through. I think the lads will be fitter than they probably ever have been.
“Since we came back into contact training the standard has been really good. We have been trying to do as much shape and possession as we can, getting ready for the games but I don’t think anyone will really know what the standard will be like until we have played our first game.”
While the big defender is delighted to maintain a high standard of fitness, he admits some rustiness when the footballs came back out.
“I barely touched a football for nine weeks,” he said. “To go back and try and get back into the groove and ticking over again takes a while.
"So I was a bit slow for the first couple of days passing the ball but you soon get back into the swing of it. We have been playing in-house games to prepare us and we will be as ready as we possibly can for Saturday."